Popular Car Colors and What They Say About You

Our cars, in many ways, are reflections of ourselves. A hybrid model, for example, tends to signal an owner who cares about the environment, while a heavy-duty truck often implies an outdoorsy type or do-it-yourselfer. And a minivan that reads “Baby on Board” almost always indicates a driver who hasn’t had the time to shop for bumper stickers lately.

But one lesser-known way we can project our personalities is through the color we choose for our cars. While most of us only consider our ride’s tint a minor aesthetic detail, studies from CNW Marketing and Churchill Motor Insurance suggest that car color is more than just Plexiglass-deep.

So if car color and personality do go hand in hand, what does your vehicle’s paint job say about you?

Fourth most popular car color: red

Our take: Not even the “Sean Connery” GPS voice setting can best a fresh coat of red paint when it comes to making a car seem like it’s way more handsome, polished, and charming than whatever you’re stuck driving.

Horoscope outlook: If you drive a red car … you will not (repeat NOT) automatically pay more for car insurance.

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About Alex Glenn

A copywriter for Esurance, Alex has professional experience in everything from film to literature to (thanklessly!) correcting the grammar in friends' emails. As a fervent Minnesota sports fan, he spends most of his non-writing time gently weeping into cereal bowls.
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182 Responses to “Popular Car Colors and What They Say About You”

Between my wife and I, she has always let me make the choice of car colors. We have had the pastels, black, white and now, October 2015, we bought a new premium model Nissan Altima and she chose silver because she got tired of white here there and everywhere. The dealership also remarked that upon rounding out 2014 and into 2015, the color silver seemed to be making a surprise move upward in choice. White could be slipping from its lead. White is known to immediately show paint chips and scratches more than any other color as well. Silver is the easiest to keep clean and when polished it gleams. Maybe this is why buyers of Mercedes Benz predominantly choose silver…….or, when it comes to demographics, survey shows that silver reigns. Could it be that of the generation which grew-up during the era of the Lone Ranger and 'Hi-Ho-Silver—Away!'.

What ever happened to the glorious days of metallic paints? Once had a 1934 Ford Pickup, chopped and channeled with "Mid-night Blue Metallic" paint. Great paint jobs are so expensive these days. Most have gone with basic colors like black, blues, reds and such. Oh yeah—the "34 had a "55 Caddy engine. How I wish I still had that truck!.

I wish I had that 34 as well. Of course if I did I probably would sell it because I didn't drive it enough and besides it would bring a real high price. Still is nice to dream.
Signed by another old guy who grew up in the 40's and 50's.

Last year my wife and I were out shopping. We noticed a Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep dealership, I was driving and just out of curiosity I pulled in. Displayed prominently in front of the dealer was a brand new JET BLACK Dodge Charger R/T, right away we thought it was beautiful, with a moon roof, and a "spoiler" on the rear.The black made it stand out, in a "classy" way. We stopped and looked at it, the next day we bought it ! It'll replace my like new (only 38K miles on it) Orange 01 Mustang GT Convertible(No I never got stopped by the police in it!). The Charger had almost every option available, including believe it or not heated and cooled cup holders and too many other options to mention. Oh, yes….it has a 5.7 liter Hemi engine. Wow it's so fast,has much more power than the Mustang V-8) and handles like a dream with computer aided traction/stability control (I can go around a sharp curve and barely notice it ! SO black it was, because that's what the dealer had in stock, with the engine I wanted, front, back seat and side airbags. Lots of electronics to go malfunction? Not to worry, we bought the 7 year warranty on ALL electronics, even the cupholders. Love the black, it looks like a very expensive sedan, and stays that was as I hand wax it with the best real paste wax available ! It's the best car we've ever had !BTW it has a "fuel saver ECO" transmission, driving conservatively it gets good gas mileage for a big car !

I've always driven a red/maroon car except one 2 year period overseas driving a darker blue one which, according to the article, more closely matches my personality. I bought red for a more practical reason–it's easier to find in a crowded parking lot. I'm will soon be shopping for what I hope will be my last car. It will be red/maroon as well because I don't want to learn to hunt for a different, more common color in a crowded parking lot.

Your take on white cars is inaccurate. Living in SoCal where it seldom rains my car stays very clean for long periods of time. It also reflects the sun seemingly being cooler. White is very popular in So Cal.